Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Plaster cast studies of hands at the Musée Rodin Meudon and Balzac's monk's cloak, below, is the spookiest A French Education will ever get, even on the eve of All Saints' Day--All Hallow Even-- Halloween, or as the French call it la veille de Toussaint.

Monday, October 29, 2012

This birthplace plaque in Nancy caught my attention, first of all because I hadn't realized that "mauvais" which translates to "bad" was a surname, and secondly because it's rare to see an 18th-century school teacher honored in this way. Virginie Mauvais was the daughter of a "constitutional priest," i.e., a priest who during the French Revolution took oath to the new constitution and became a paid clerical agent of the state. (The constitutional clerical arrangement existed from 1790 until 1801 when Napoléon Bonaparte and Pope Pie VII signed an agreement ending it.)

Virginie as an adult studied, earned diplomas, became a teacher and opened a school for young girls, then later worked in Nancy's budding public schools. Dedicating her life to combatting ignorance and poverty, she developed a modern reading method through which both children and adults could learn to read in six weeks. After her retirement and upon the advice of a former student, she invested in the Portuguese railways system and made a fortune, a part of which she legged to the city of Nancy to build three-story hospital which included a floor for children's surgery.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Sacré de Birmanie Pompon stretches out to give meaning to the French expression, "Il est long comme un jour sans pain." He is long like a day without bread. It can either mean something is very long in physical length, or (not in Pompon's case) endlessly boring.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Gathering wild mushrooms is a pleasant and fairly popular activity in France, so much so that whenever one has a doubt about whether a mushroom is comestible, one can simply take it to any drugstore where its identification is offered as a free and friendly service by pharmacists. These bonnets look to me to be of the mostly non-comestible mycena genus ofmushrooms, but I'm no expert.

Vocabularyun champignon: a mushroom; a fungusune ville-champignon: a boom town

ExpressionAppuyer sur le champignon: to step on the gas pedal; to accelerate

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Born of the powerful family of Florentine mécènes, she was the niece of a pope, a Machiavellian queen of France and an ardent believer in astrology. When Catherine de Médici (1519-1589) learned from her astrologer that she would die near Saint-Germain, she took the prediction to heart and thereafter avoided all places having the name Saint-Germain. Some fifteen years later when taken ill and on her death bed at the Château de Blois, a priest was hastily summoned to perform extreme unction. After giving her the last rites, she asked him his name. "Julien de Saint-Germain," he replied. "Alors, je suis perdue!" she answered, appalled.

Vocabularyun mécène: a patron of the arts; sponsorperdu(e): lost

Gisant or recumbent effigy of Catherine de Médici at the Basilique Saint-Denis.

Friday, October 19, 2012

French cat Pompon is at it again, this time illustrating a play on words: l'avenir appartient à celui qui se lèche tôt. Get it?ExpressionL'avenir appartient à celui qui se lève tôt: The future belongs to those who rise early.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

After months of restauration, last year's fire damage at Ladurée on the Champs Elysées is officially a thing of the past; the store's sumptuous macaron counter is back in place, and identical to the way it was before.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The temptation to use today's title was too great; plus I'm sure French learners will be delighted to spike their conversation with the lively but benign expression of surprise or admiration, "La vache!"

The winged bull representing Saint Luke and symbolizing all at the same time spiritual force, tranquility and sacrifice, is posed on the parvis of the Basilique Saint-Epvre, Nancy.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

When night falls, lights positioned on the inside of the neo-gothic Basilique Saint-Epvre in Nancy are turned on to illuminate the stained glass windows, making them visible from the outside. Unexpectedly dramatic for evening stollers.

Monday, October 8, 2012

What a surprise! Friends just sent me these photos taken the other day outside of the Louvre, next to the Jardin des Tuileries. The company responsible for maintaining the gardens and lawns of the Louvre now uses goats to keep the grass tidy in the steep ditch that runs along the periphery of the park. The small, long-haired goats are a breed found on France's western coasts. Called les chèvres des fossés, their numberhas dwindled over the years to only a few hundred. Also known as la vache des pauvres, the poor people's cow, these milk-producing goats, typically belonged to people who did not own grazing land. Property owners would allow them to tether the goats on difficult and rough terrains to crop the grass.

Photos by John Desjardin

Où la chèvre est attachée, il faut qu'elle broute.
Goats have to graze where they are tethered. This is an expression of resignation to one's situation; when necessity obliges, one must accept the circumstances in which one finds oneself.

Vocabularybrouter: to graze on, to grazeattacher: to fasten, to attach, to tie uple gazon: grassla pelouse: lawnune fossé: a ditchtondre: to mow

Saturday, October 6, 2012

It's free, amazing, and I send all of my visiting friends and family to see it: Raoul Dufy's La Fée de l'Electricité (The Electricity Fairy), a panoramic depiction of the history of electricity. Painted for the electricity pavillon at the 1937 International Exposition, the work was ordered and financed by Electricté de France (EDF). EDF later donated the immense mural to the city of Paris, where it is on display at the city's Musée d'Art Moderne, without charge.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Statue of Napoléon atop the Colonne de la Grande Armée, at Wimille near Boulogne-sur-Mer. It was here that Napoléon had amassed 150,000 troops for two years waiting to attack England. In 1805, after realizing that he lacked naval supremacy, he abandonned the plan. The statue is positioned so that Napoléon's back is turned toward England.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Pompon, French Birman who has just turned two, has no qualms about drinking tap water, and in fact has put his all into prepping for today's photo session. The expression "wet behind the ears" can be translated to French as "c'est un petit jeunot" (it's a young lad), or "manquer de 'l'expérience" (to lack experience).

Vocabularyjeune: youngun jeunot: a young ladl'eau du robinet: tap water

Monday, October 1, 2012

Kif-kif is an amusing alliteration of the Maghrib word "kif" which means "like" or "same." French soldiers returning from North Africa introduced it to France during the 19th century. Kif-kif bourricot, which means "it's all the same to the donkey," became a popular and lilting variation of kif-kif. This resigned pack animal, tethered outside of a panoramic restaurant and souvenir shop at the Grand Ballon in the Vosges Mountains, knows what it means.

Vocabularyun bourricot: a small donkeyun âne: a donkey, an ass; a foolkif-kif: it's all the samepareil (-le): same

Recommended readingLes Mémoires d'un Âne (Memoirs of a Donkey)by the Comtesse de Ségur